Pen Pals
by justanothergleek56
Summary: Emily Fields is assigned an anonymous pen pal for the summer. She at first hates the idea but what happens when she and her pen pal start to click? AU
1. Chapter 1

**A/N: Just some background information, Emily and Alison didn't know each other prior to any of this, and there's no A.**

* * *

Emily Fields arrived in her fourth period classroom, and she wasn't necessarily ecstatic about it. Emily couldn't think of a subject she disliked more than French, she couldn't grasp the language very well, the teacher was slightly aggravating, and the students in the class weren't her friends to any degree. Although the students are expected to make friends within the class, Emily did the exact opposite by avoiding eye contact with everyone unless it was absolutely necessary.

As Emily settled into her desk, the teacher, Mrs. McMiller, arrived with her arms filled with stacks of papers, with her bag swinging from her arm. As soon as Emily noticed the papers in her teacher's hands, she knew precisely what they were. She had completely forgotten about the test they had taken last Wednesday even though she received several reminders that it would be marked and handed back today.

"Good afternoon class, I hope you all had a good weekend, but I'm guessing you're all anxious to see how you did on your tests." Mrs. McMiller said with unbridled glee as she scanned the faces of her nervous students.

The classroom went dead silent. "The class average out of 110 is 97, and considering the class median of 75, that's not bad." She picked up the stack of tests and started handing them out. Inaudible whispers of profanity came from some students, while other students were practically jumping out of their seats.

Once Emily was given her test, she flipped it over to see her mark in thick red marker. She sighed as she saw her grade and quickly shoved the test into her bag. She was expecting a low mark but not as low as what she got. 56%, what a disaster. Her brain seemed to be dissipating as the year came to an end. She started out with her marks in the high eighties, but it's been downhill ever since. Emily was just content with how close summer break was.

"So since this school year is coming to an end I've prepared a summer project for all of you."

A few scattered groans echoed throughout the class room. "It will be a pen pal project, and all of you will be writing to someone from a different country. The other grade 11 French class will be doing this as well. You each get a number assigned to you and your name and address will be kept confidential, that is unless you become very good friends with this person and decide you want to share that information with them. Although I don't recommend that, it has happened before. And yes, this is mandatory." As Mrs. McMiller continued droning on, Emily started to zone out, thinking about how stupid this project was. She understood why they might do this in elementary school, but high school? Aren't they too old for this?

"I hope you all listened carefully to what I've told you because I'm not repeating myself because of your laziness." Emily mentally cursed for not paying attention. Luckily the teacher also wrote some of what the students needed to do on the chalkboard. Emily read over the information and gathered the important data, hoping she'll remember it because she really doesn't want to write it down.

* * *

The bell chimed out to signal the end of the day and Emily quickly stood up and departed from the classroom and made her way to her locker. When she got there, two of her best friends, Spencer and Aria, were waiting for her.

"How do you two always beat me to _my_ locker? Both of your 4th period classrooms are on the third floor!" Announced Emily.

As always, she remained puzzled about how her friends can stop at their lockers after class and still manage to make it to hers before she did.

"We're obviously ninjas, Emily." Spencer joked as Emily stumbled to dump her textbooks into her bag.

"Or you're just a sloth." Aria criticized. Emily stared at Aria for a second before shaking her head, closing her locker and heading down the hallway towards the exit.

"Jeez, Em, what crawled up your ass?" Her taller friend had noticed how irritated Emily seemed to be and couldn't resist asking her.

Emily didn't respond until the three started making their way home.

"Mrs. McMiller assigned us a project two days before school ends and expects us to continue it throughout the break."

"What is it?" Aria piped in.

"We have to do pen pals with someone from a different country, but we don't get to know their name or even what country they're from. I think it's stupid and just a complete waste of time." Emily was now walking noticeably faster than her friends, forcing them to speed up.

"How bad can it be, Em? Maybe you'll get someone cool." Said Spencer as she tried to make Emily feel better.

"I forgot to mention that it has to be written in French, and dropped off at the school whenever I need to send a letter. I have to do it twice a week which is ridiculous! My French sucks, and I don't want to spend my summer in my stuffy room writing to a stranger in a language I hate!" Emily took a deep breath and stopped in front of her house to look at her friends.

"Well at least I'll see you guys tomorrow, unless you can come over today."

"I can't today, sorry." Aria apologized. She looked at Emily and then to Spencer hoping she wouldn't bail on her as well.

"I think I can make it, but I have to drop my stuff off at home first." Emily nodded and smiled, glad that at least one of her friends can come.

The three friends parted ways and Emily stood in front of her house watching them go before she walked up to her porch and entered her home. Since she had the house to herself right now, she carelessly dropped her bag onto the living room floor and made her way to the kitchen to grab a tub of ice cream. Emily cherished the days when her mother was working night shifts, because it meant she could have friends over late and do whatever she wanted. Today she decided on ice cream and a movie to take her mind off of how ruined her summer vacation was.

* * *

Emily was startled by the beep of her phone on the table. She picked it up to read the text.

_Hey, Em. I'm gonna have to cancel today): My parents want me home to see my sister when she gets back from vacation. But we should definitely hangout soon, with Aria too. See ya tomorrow. – Spencer_

Emily was relieved with her friend's cancellation. She was starting to have second thoughts because she wasn't in the best of moods right now and wanted time to herself. She thought back to the pen pals project and how her teacher wrote on the board that they had to have their first letter written today so it can be mailed tomorrow. Emily was not feeling up to doing this, but she needed the grade and she figured the sooner she does it, the sooner she can go to sleep.

The brunette turned off the TV, picked up her bag from where she left it on the floor, and headed upstairs to her room. When she entered, she sat at her desk and emptied the contents of her bag in front of her. She needed to find the test that she had sloppily shoved into her bag earlier today. As soon as she located the paper, she took one last look at it before crumpling it up into a ball and chucking into her garbage bin.

Once she finished packing all of her belongings back into her bag, she grabbed a pen and some paper and put them down in front of her. Emily sat for a few minutes just thinking of how to start the letter. She put her pen to the paper but her mind went blank and she couldn't remember how to greet people in French so she just decided to start by introducing herself.

_Je'mappelle Emily_

As soon as she finished writing that, she mentally slapped herself for writing her name on the paper. Mrs. McMiller stated multiple times not to mention your name anywhere and Emily did the exact opposite. She crumpled up the failed letter and grabbed another piece of paper to begin another one.

Emily thought for a bit but still couldn't remember any French other than how to introduce her name and the words for apple and potato. There's 2 years of high school French gone to waste. She contemplated using an app to translate for her but she doesn't want to end up sounding like an absolute idiot, so she decided to take a chance and just write it in English. It's not like the teachers will ever see the letters.

* * *

Emily licked the envelope to close it and turned it over to write her number on it. Each student got a number that they had to go by to make it easier for the teachers when they mailed their letters.

She picked up her bag from the floor, beside her, and put the envelope into her binder for French class. After putting her bag back down, she got up from her desk chair and flopped onto her bed, not caring about pajamas. It was a long and boring day for Emily Fields.

* * *

**A/N: I'd like to see how this story plays out and if it gets a decent amount of attention I'll continue. The next chapter will focus more on Alison. Thanks for reading (: **


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N: Thank you to everyone who has favourited, followed, and reviewed, it means a lot! To the reviewers who were worried about this turning into some cheesy love story, don't worry, I don't want to rush into things either. It should be quite a few chapters before anything close to that happens, but I also don't want to drag it out too long. I will try my best to develop their relationship realistically.**

* * *

While hesitantly closing her car door, Alison DiLaurentis stared up at the school, thinking of everything that had happened during her junior year. Freshman year she was a nobody, an outcast. Her parents insisted that she went to Rosewood because they had read reviews online of just how marvelous the school was. Alison looked at those reviews, her parents lied and the only five star rating was from some happy-go-lucky soccer mom. Soon enough Alison was finished with freshman year and was pleased to know that she would no longer be at the bottom of the proverbial school food chain, but she still remained a social pariah during her sophomore year. Now here she is, sitting at the top of the social ladder, all thanks to her new found friend, Hanna Marin.

Junior year had just begun a week earlier when she met Hanna, and Alison was already settled into all of her classes. She had stopped to go to the bathroom like she always does after lunch. As she walked in, she could hear a faint sniffling sound coming from one of the stalls. Usually this washroom was empty at this time, but not today. When the obviously crying person came out of the toilet, Alison was face to face with the school's Queen Bee, Hanna Marin. She stood stunned at the mess in front of her. Hanna's cheeks were stained with mascara that had run down her rosy cheeks. Her eyes looked bloodshot and red, continuing to fill with tears. Alison had never seen the it girl look like this before. She was usually so calm and composed, never a stich away from perfect.

"If you tell anyone I swear-"

Before Hanna could finish sentence she started blubbering again, muttering incoherent nothings while trying to lean on Alison.

Alison panicked. She didn't want to push the girl away, but she had no choice as Hanna was already embracing her in a tight grip. Alison was reluctant at first to return the grasp, but she realized Hanna needed the comfort as she was in a most vulnerable state.

They stayed in a hugging position for almost 3 minutes while Hanna continued to mumble and sob into Alison's shoulder. She finally lifted her head and backed away from the Alison, thanking her and quickly fleeing the bathroom. They never talked about this incident again.

To this day Alison still doesn't know what she was so upset about, but she does know that after that moment, she and Hanna could not have been closer. Hanna had started to invite her to eat lunch with her and her posse of friends, but after Alison joined them for lunch every day, the crowd started to thin until it was just the two of them left. They were still climbing the social ladder by day, and nothing was stopping them.

Alison's thoughts were interrupted by a cluster of horny teenage boys, yelling something about her outfit as they walked by. She decided to wear her favourite yellow floral dress to celebrate the last day of school before break. It wasn't that short. She shrugged it off while scanning the school parking lot for her friend, instantly finding her. As always, Hanna was the most dazzling person in the room, or in this case the school parking lot. Her lovely blonde hair bounced as she walked towards Alison. As she was walking, she locked her car and dropped her car keys into her purse.

Alison was too focused on getting to Hanna to notice how crowded the sidewalks were and suddenly bumped into someone, knocking them to the ground.

"Watch where you're fucking going, my god." Hissed the girl Alison bumped into.

Judging by her fuming tone, she was not pleased with the blonde. Alison had made eye contact with the girl when she hit the ground. Her eyes were an unforgettable dark brown, so easy to get lost into, Alison thought as she stared into them. Looking at them for just a second more, Alison pulled back into reality, muttered an apology and walked away.

"Not get enough sleep, Alison? What the hell was that?" Hanna questioned as they walked side-by-side into the halls of Rosewood High. Alison knew she usually wasn't that clumsy.

"Whatever." Alison huffed out. "It's not entirely my fault, she should've been watching where she was going too."

The two stopped at their lockers that they had requested to be beside each other earlier in the school year, to grab their textbooks for first period.

"I'll see you last period Ali." Hanna yelled as she waved to Alison when she sped off to her first class. Alison spun around to look at the clock in the hallway, reading _8:55._ Knowing class started in five minutes, she hastily closed her locker and gathering her things in her arms to rush to her class.

* * *

Alison warily watched the clock above the doorway, waiting for the bell to signal the end of third period. She wanted this day over with just as much as anyone would during the last day of school. As soon as the bell rang, the students raced out the door and into the crowded hallway. Out of fear of getting trampled, Alison waited a few seconds to get out of her seat and leave.

She met Hanna at their lockers to go to their fourth period French class. They had considered skipping but since it was the last day, they decided against it. yolo

When they arrived, they took their seats and waited for Mr. Queck to begin whatever he had prepared for their last day of class. Alison hoped he didn't have much planned, she didn't want a summer project.

"Okay class, the other grade 11 French teacher and I have put together a summer project. It will be mandatory so please don't try to get out of doing it." Alison groaned loud enough for the whole class to hear her. Mr. Queck gave her a concerned look but continued talking to the class. "The project will be one involving pen pals. You will each be writing to someone from a different country. Your identity and address will stay safe. That is unless you feel you're comfortable enough to share it with your pen pal. Based on the mailing system we will be using, you should be writing to your pen pal once or twice each week."

Hanna put her hand up and asked a question. "How long will we have to do this?"

"For the duration of the summer. When you come back next year we'll decide where to go from there." Mr. Queck pithily responded to Hanna, and looked around the room for any more questions, but nobody had any.

"You should be receiving your first letter by this Saturday. If you don't, contact the school and we will do our best to solve the problem." Alison was astonished when her teacher mentioned them having to write twice a week. "Now before you get excited you should know that these letters must be written in French. I'm expecting good things from this class, your median IS 94."

Sighing louder than she ever thought she could, Alison shot her hand up and asked to go to the washroom. She didn't feel like listening to whatever else he had to say. She was done for the day.

* * *

Friday morning came and Alison was getting ready to leave and meet Hanna at The Brew. She wore her usual attire which consisted of skinny jeans with a blouse and low heels.

"Alison would you get the mail, please?" Her mother called to her from inside the DiLaurentis household just as she was headed out the door.

She exhaled loudly, obeying her mother and grabbing the mail from the mail box. Something caught her eye before she could pull out the mail. Across the street she could see her neighbour, Spencer Hastings, pulling into her driveway; but she wasn't alone. The girl from earlier was with her, the one she bumped into yesterday. Alison's eyes lingered on the brunette. She was pretty, to say the least. She watched them as they exited the SUV and went into Spencer's yard. Alison wondered what they were doing together in her neighbour's yard but quickly ignored it because she had more important things to do right now. Like getting her mom the mail. Alison snapped her head back to her mail box, grabbing the mail and heading inside.

Alison walked through the house to the living room where her mother was waiting for her to bring the mail. "Thank you, Alison." Jessica DiLaurentis thanked as she skimmed through the small pile of mail for anything interesting. "Oh, Alison there's something here for you." She held out the envelope addressed to Alison.

She was hesitant at first, but then greedily snatched the envelope from her mother's hand. She doesn't get mail often. It's not like she has bills to pay or friends who still use the mailing system.

She hastily tore open the letter only to see a small piece of paper that said Project Pen Pals on it. She had completely forgotten about the project as she was too caught up in the excitement that was the beginning of summer. She wasn't supposed to receive this until the next day. Alison sighed. At least she got one free day of school this year. The paper had information on it that didn't really concern Alison so she tossed it onto her kitchen counter and took a seat on one of the stools.

She pulled out the letter from the envelope and unfolded the paper. She scanned over the letter and figured this was work from a girl because the writing was feminine. As she started reading the letter she realized that the whole letter was in English, not French.

_Bonjer_

_I'm gonna be honest here, my French is shit. Did I even say hello right? I don't think I did. Not too sure what I'm supposed to say here, we aren't even allowed to share our names which is a bit stupid in my opinion. Whatever. What's your favourite colour? Favourite ice cream flavour? Favourite movie? This is like, first day of school material, sorry, pen pal. We were given a list of our pen pals interests. It says you like shopping, fashion, and reading. Looks like the only thing we have in common is reading. Hopefully we can get to know each other better._

_Sincerely,_

_E_

Alison could swear she felt a rush of excitement after she finished reading the letter, as if she was eager to reply to her pen pal. After the excitement came the dread. This means that the project has officially started and that her summer was already over. At least her pen pal seemed to be decent, although wasn't she supposed to be writing in English because she was from a different country? Whatever. She scrunched her nose and crammed the letter into her purse and made her way out the front door, not bothering to notify her mother.

* * *

"Hanna you can't just ask people out willy nilly." Alison hissed at the blonde sitting across from her in their normal spot at The Brew. "You don't even know him, he could be a complete creep for all you know."

"As if you know any more about him than I do. Besides, he's hot." Hanna's eyes were locked on the guy sitting across the room, who still hadn't noticed her.

"My god, you're not exactly being subtle about your leering. You look like you're undressing him with your eyes." Alison was irked by her friends attitude, so she snapped her fingers multiple times in front of her face to get her attention.

"You ruined a moment, Ali."

"Well I'm sorry to interrupt you and your boyfriend." Alison's voice was coated with sarcasm.

"Whatever, he looks too old for me anyways." Hanna took a sip of her latte before clearing her throat and piping out something else. "You should cheer up, summer's finally here and you're being sulky."

Alison furrowed her eyebrows and sat up straight. "I'm not being sulky, I'm just mad about the summer project I have to do for school." She looked everywhere except for at Hanna, avoiding eye contact. "We have to write letters to pen pals from other countries, and the worst part is that we have to write to one another twice a week."

"I know. I'm doing it too remember. It's not like you'll have to be working on that all the time. How bad can it be?" Hanna tried to convince the taller blonde. "Is that why you're being such a downer? If it is, it's a really dumb reason to be. I'm trying to see the bright side of this project."

"And what's that?"

"I'm hoping my pen pal is a cute boy. I can have an effortless summer romance sponsored by our school. His name would be Alejandro and he'd introduce me to all the wonders of France or where ever else he'd come from."

Alison nudged her best friend. "Is that really all you think of Hanna? Cute boys"

"Well a girls got to have her priorities."

They both laughed and continued on with the previous conversation.

"That's not entirely the reason why, I got my first letter today and my pen pal seems like a real killjoy. Her letter wasn't exciting at all, and she can't even speak French. And why can't she write French? Isn't she supposed to be French? I don't even know if she is a she. She could be a _he_ for all I know."

"So just don't write her back, it's not like they'll ever find out."

"It's mandatory." Alison huffed out.

"Whatever, it's your problem not mine. I have to go anyways, my mom wants to take me to dinner." Hanna got up from her seat, throwing her purse over her shoulder. "Good luck with your pen pal." Hanna waved to Alison before leaving other blonde.

Hanna was already out the door before Alison could say anything or even notice that friend was gone. She took her purse and coffee and made her way out the door.

* * *

"Quickly, Emily." Alison was alarmed by the voice she heard outside. She lifted herself off of her bed to look out the window. She could see her neighbour and the girl from earlier going into her neighbour's barn.

She figured since she already knew Spencer's name, then the other girl must be Emily. Alison wondered why she'd never noticed this girl at school before, she was beyond gorgeous.

She watched the pair as they made their way into the barn and then took a seat at her desk. She grabbed her purse to get her chap stick, but accidentally pulled the letter out as she rummaged through her purse. She considered pushing it back in and forgetting it was ever there, but she instead put it on the desk in front of her and dropped her purse back on her bed.

Alison picked a pen from the mug filled with writing utensils sitting on her desk, and took a sheet of paper from the pile in her drawer. She picked up the letter from her pen pal and read over it once again, picking up details so that she doesn't mess up anything in her letter.

_Bonjour, E_

_You didn't get the greeting right. But that's okay, you tried. I don't blame you for getting it wrong either, French can be a hard language to learn. Now to answer your questions, my favourite colour is yellow, my favourite flavour of ice cream is mint chocolate chip, and I wouldn't say I have a favourite movie, too many to choose from. I really don't want this to turn into a round of 20 questions, but I also want to know more about you. I didn't get any paper that had your interests on it so I suppose we'll just have to play this out and see how it goes. I do have one question though, what book are you currently reading?_

_Yours truly,_

_A_

As Alison put down her pen she realized just how kind-hearted she sounded in the letter. She was not her usual self in that letter at all, but she was still content with the way it sounded. She folded the letter up to place it into an envelope and put it aside so she will remember to drop it off at the school tomorrow.

* * *

**A/N: I'm sure some of you were expecting them to live in two different countries, but I decided to change it up a bit because I think that would make it too similar to other stories.**


	3. Chapter 3

**A/N: Thank you to everyone for the feedback on the last chapter, it's great to hear from you guys.**

* * *

"Look at him." Hanna speculated. She had one of the tips of her sunglasses in her mouth as she stared at the lifeguard before her. "Hot damn."

"Why is it that you're always in complete awe over every guy in your line of sight?" Alison inquired from beside her as she lay sprawled out on the chair.

"I can't help it if almost every guy just happens to be incredibly attractive in this town."

Hanna got out of her seat and took off her low cut jean shorts, to reveal her bikini.

"What are you doing? I thought we agreed on no swimming today, just tanning."

The blonde below her took off her sunglasses to examine her friend.

"Relax, Ali, I'm gonna go swim around and see if he'll notice me. If that doesn't work I'll just fake drown." Hanna said, her voice laced with confidence

"Wait Han-"

Alison stood and tried to stop her but she was already stepping into the pool.

She eyed the other blonde curiously while adjusting her chair so she could sit upright into the shade of the large umbrella behind her. She removed her sunglasses to watch Hanna and shook her head as she watched her flail around in the water, waiting for the lifeguard to notice her.

People around Hanna started to acknowledge her behaviour. She kept pacing through the water, occasionally jumping out of it; the lifeguard did see her doing this, but ignored her for the sake of keeping his job.

Alison took her eyes off Hanna for one second to check her phone, but when she looked back up, Hanna was being dragged out of the pool by a different lifeguard from the other end of the pool. She recognized the lifeguard escorting her away. It was the girl she had bumped into at school, also known as the girl she had seen in her neighbour's backyard. Her name was Emily wasn't it?

She wondered why Emily seemed to be popping up everywhere recently as she'd never seen her at all up until the past week. She was instantly recognizable from Alison's point of view.

Emily's brows were furrowed as she began to lecture Hanna about pool rules. She was not too pleased with her. Alison decided she should go save Hanna from the embarrassment and apologize to Emily for her friend's actions.

As Alison made her way over to the pair, she could overhear some of their conversation.

"If you're looking for someone to flirt with, the country club really isn't the place, so I suggest you leave."

Before Emily could say any more, Alison approached them eager to convince her to let them stay. "Wait, wait. Look, I apologize for my friend, she's a bit crazy when it comes to boys and she thought she could get the attention of the lifeguard. Obviously, it didn't work and instead she got the wrong l-lifeguard's attention. It won't happen again."

Alison was surprised by her slight stutter, she hadn't stuttered in over a year.

"It's fine, just watch her, yeah?"

Emily waved her arm in the direction of the other blonde who had left halfway through their conversation, too ashamed to face the lifeguard.

Alison watched as Emily walked back to her lifeguard post, wondering why she felt almost flustered to be speaking to the brunette. It left a funny feeling in her stomach.

"Ali, can we just go, please? I don't want to stay here." Hanna abruptly said as she started to pack up her belongings, and Alison hastily obliged, following Hanna out of the country club.

* * *

As soon as Emily went to her first day as the lifeguard at The Rosewood Country Club, she instantly regretted taking the job offer at the summer job fair. Swimming was one of Emily's favourite things to do. It helped her get her mind off of everything that was happening in her life, but this was different. She wanted swimming to be her escape from life, not turn into a weekly chore.

"You always could have taken the same job as me. Carnival work ain't so bad." Aria said as she looked up at Emily when she stepped down from her post for the end of her shift. "I get the same pay as you, and I still do less work."

"Or you could have applied earlier like I did." Spencer practically bragged as she reminded her friends for the umpteenth time that she had gotten to the job fair early, which landed her a job overnight stocking at the local grocery store. It easily had to have been one of the most effortless jobs offered.

"Okay, Spence, I get that I should have applied earlier but I was busy with school work at the time and I forgot about it."

Emily took her last step off the lifeguard post and looked at her friends. "Besides, they pretty much made me do this job. I really didn't have a choice. The stupid school recommended me. I couldn't have backed out of that."

Emily walked past Aria and Spencer to grab her sunglasses and bag from the table where her friends were sitting, before turning around to look at them.

"Thanks for coming you guys and keeping me company, but I'm gonna head home now. Mondays are my ultimate weakness."

Emily pulled both Spencer and Aria in for hugs and waved them a goodbye before leaving the pool.

* * *

As she walked up to her front porch, Emily noticed that her mailbox was full of envelopes that had been carelessly shoved into it. She grabbed the contents and brought them into the house with her.

Once she threw the mail onto the marble kitchen counter, something caught her eye. She could see her name on one of the letters under the pile. She put down her car keys to pick up the letter and then tore it open.

Emily knew what this was, and she didn't like it one bit; she had just sent out the letter to her pen pal the previous week and she wasn't expecting a reply so soon. Although she probably should've been, considering that fact that her pen pal probably had to send 2 letters a week as well.

Before taking the letter out, Emily decided to take it upstairs to her room; she didn't want her parents to see it.

When she got to her room she hastily changed out of her swimsuit. Emily hated sitting in a wet swimsuit. She put on her Rosewood High pullover sweatshirt, as well as her favourite pair of sweatpants, and to top it all off, she put her hair in a bun on the top of her head. Emily always thought she looked like an idiot with it up like that, but it was too comfortable to change.

She bounced onto her bed and rolled onto her stomach before unfolding the letter; she let out a sigh of relief when she noticed that her pen pal had also written in English. If it was in French she probably would have thrown the letter out.

_Bonjour, E_

_You didn't get the greeting right. But that's okay, you tried. I don't blame you for getting it wrong either, French can be a hard language to learn. Now to answer your questions, my favourite colour is yellow, my favourite flavour of ice cream is mint chocolate chip, and I wouldn't say I have a favourite movie, too many to choose from. I really don't want this to turn into a round of 20 questions, but I also want to know more about you. I didn't get any paper that had your interests on it so I suppose we'll just have to play this out and see how it goes. I do have one question though, what book are you currently reading?_

_Yours truly,_

_A_

By the way this person sounded in their letter, Emily could tell they were nice, or at least she hoped they were.

She looked around for a hardcover book to write on, grabbing one from her bedside table, as well as a pen.

Emily decided to start the letter by answering the last question that her pen pal asked in the letter. She had just started reading Outlander by Diana Gabaldon, but she had nothing much to say about it since she had only read the first couple of pages so far, so she looked at the back cover to see if she could learn anything about the book, but it didn't look very promising.

Before she could even get her pen on the paper, her phone rang from beside her on the bed. She picked it up to be greeted with a cheery Spencer, screeching something about her parents.

"Em, my parents just left for their trip, so we can finally have the sleepover we've been waiting to have for a while!" Spencer practically yelled from the other end. "Come over now, Aria's already here."

She could hear Aria talking in the background, but Emily couldn't make out what she was saying.

Emily thought about it for a second. They hadn't been able to hang out in a while, but she did see both of them when they came to see her at the pool earlier today. Other than that, it has been a long time so she decided she should go.

"Yeah I'll come. Just let me finish some stuff first and I'll be over in about an hour." As soon as Emily responded, inaudible squeals of excitement came from her phone; she was surprised by her friends' enthusiasm.

"Okay, we'll see you soon!" Spencer signed off with one last screech before hanging up.

She stared at the blank screen, ever so slightly lifting up the right side of her mouth into a smirk; _this is what summer is all about_ she thought.

She chucked her phone behind her, careless of where it landed; she was in a good mood and nothing could ruin it.

* * *

Emily finished writing the letter and read it over to check for any mistakes.

_Hello, A_

_Right now I'm reading Outlander by Diana Gabaldon, it's rather interesting so far; I've never read a story that involved time-travelling before. I have to say I agree with you when you say you don't want this to turn into a game of 20 questions, but if you want to get to know me, asking one question at the end of every letter wouldn't be the best method. I'll just tell you a few things about me, and you can tell me a few things about yourself. I'm a swimmer, it really helps me relax; I'm an only child, my favourite food is pizza, but I try to avoid it most of the time. One last thing you should know is that I'm a girl, but maybe you could tell by my writing. Hopefully what I've told you doesn't disobey my teacher's rules, that would be oh so tragic. Maybe I shouldn't use sarcasm in a letter.._

_Sincerely,_

_E_

Satisfied with her letter, Emily folded it up, placed it into an envelope and threw it onto her desk; she rubbed her eyes before prying herself off her bed and walking over to the closet to change into her jeans. She figured she should look decent for the sleepover.

She picked up the letter from the spot where she threw it previously and put it into her back pocket. She caught a glimpse of herself in the mirror as she went by the mirror on her way out; her hair was still in the bun she put it in earlier. After taking it out she ran her fingers through her hair a few times to get any tangles out.

Emily took one last look at herself before grabbing her already packed overnight bag and heading downstairs.

"And where might you be going?"

Pam Fields was looking straight at Emily, her glasses on the brim of her nose and a newspaper spread out on her lap.

"S-Spencer invited me to sleepover." Emily stuttered out. "Aria's there too."

"Is there something going on between you and Spencer that I should know about?"

Pam waited for a response from her daughter.

Emily's jaw dropped at her mother's words.

"Mom, we've been best friends for as long as I can remember." Emily huffed out. "It's not like we've never had a sleepover before."

The older woman eyed Emily before pushing her glasses back up onto her nose and picking up the newspaper again.

"You can go, just be careful."

Emily gave a small nod and hurriedly made her way out the door and to her car.

* * *

Spencer, Aria, and Emily all sat around the fire pit that had been recently installed in the Hasting's backyard. Each of them were engulfed in their own blanket. They had been sitting like this for nearly an hour now. Emily arrived at the house around quarter after eight in the evening after dropping off her letter at the school. The other two girls had already ordered pizza and started a movie by the time she got there.

"Oh yeah, Spencer, I almost forgot to tell you. According to my mom, you and me have a thing." Emily said, breaking the silence between the three girls.

"Seriously? You came out to her over a year ago! Doesn't she understand you yet?"

Spencer laughed out loud when she heard what Emily said. Almost too loud.

"She just figured that since we always have sleepovers I guess." Emily replied and started laughing with her.

Aria put on her best grumpy face and crossed her arms.

"So what? Do I not qualify to be your girlfriend in your mom's eyes? I see how it is." Aria broke in.

Aria tried to keep a straight face, but her friends' laughter was too much for her and she couldn't help but laugh along with them.

* * *

Alison looked at the clock beside her bed. It read _10:48 _in bold red numbers. She couldn't sleep, her neighbour's were too loud.

She got out from under her covers for what must have been the fifth time to go look out her window; they were still being noisy. Alison thought about closing the window, but it would get far too warm in her room without the cool night air blowing in through the opening. Her father insisted on keeping the air conditioning off at night.

Then, a thought came to Alison's mind. What would Hanna do? Hanna would either throw something at them, or make a disturbance call. Ali didn't have the guts to do either, so she instantly removed the idea from her head. It wouldn't end well.

Alison laid back down in her bed, facing the fact that she can't do anything about the noise, and she'd just have to wait it out.


	4. Chapter 4

**A/N: This chapter will be set a month and a half later, so it's around mid-August.**

* * *

Emily's pace was brisk as she made her way down the stairs and to her front door. She unlocked the deadbolt, opened the door and was face-to-face with the mail man.

"S-sorry, sir." Emily stuttered out and then shut the door as quickly as she had opened it. Her face turned to a deep shade of red.

She staggered over to the window in her living room to watch and make sure the mail man was long gone before grabbing the mail.

Emily was too busy hastily sorting through the mail to notice her mother standing at the bottom of the steps.

"Emily."

She jumped at the sound of her mother's voice, dropping a few articles of mail on the floor.

"Why are you so anxious to get the mail?" Pam questioned her daughter.

"Um," Emily hurriedly retrieved the mail from the floor in front of her. "I'm just expecting something is all."

"What are you expecting?"

"Just some mail-" Emily sarcastically said.

She then mentally slapped herself for using sarcasm in front of her mother, she knows how much she hates it.

"-it's mail from a pen pal for a school project."

"So what makes you so anxious to get the letter?" Her mother inquired, stretching out her arm to take the mail from Emily.

Emily thought about telling her mother the truth for a second, but she figured her mother wouldn't care.

"I was supposed to write back a few days ago, but the letter never came. If I don't write back soon I'll lose marks."

"Okay, well here it is."

Her mother handed her the letter she'd been waiting for.

"Thanks."

As soon as the letter was in her hand, Emily turned around to make her way back upstairs.

She shut her door a bit too hard; but she didn't care, the letter finally came in the mail.

After taking a seat in her desk chair, she was relieved that her mother believed her obvious lie. How was she supposed to say that she's developed a small crush on her pen pal from a different country? Or that they've only been exchanging letters for a month and half? Or that they don't even know each other's names yet? Or that the small crush maybe isn't very small, but much bigger?

Emily didn't want to think too hard about the potential outcome of this. She wanted to focus mind on the letter she was tearing open. Once it was, she unfolded the paper to see the writing she had grown to love so much.

_Hey, E_

_I have a confession to make; I love being able to write these letters. __In__ fact for the time that we did exchange them, it made my life better. __But__ don't you think there's an easier way of talking? Like, texting? Well, I'm gonna leave my number at the bottom of the paper, and it's entirely your choice if you want to contact me using that, or stick with letters. I'll be happy either way. Just think about this way, if we want to contact each other immediately, instead of waiting for a letter, we can just text the other person. Now, back to our conversation from your last letter, if we were to ever meet in person, I would definitely give you a great big hug; not to brag, but I've been told my hugs are great. I would also show you around where I live, I'm sure it'll be more fascinating in your eyes than it is to me. I might even take you to this cafe, it's my favourite in town and I would love for you to see it._

_Yours truly,_

_A_

She had a wide grin plastered on her face while reading through whole letter. She was surprised by her pen pal's offer. She remembered what she had said in her last letter, wanting to know what would happen if they were to ever meet in person.

Emily started thinking back to some of the earlier letters that she sent, and how quickly she began to click with this person; going from stranger to friends within such a short time. She remembered her failed attempt to speak French in the first letter. The letter she practically spilled her feelings into, as if it was her diary, when they tried guess where each other lived.

She sat in her chair smiling like an idiot, hoping her mother wouldn't walk in to see her.

The brunette got up from her chair to lay on her bed and picked up her phone from her bedside table. Her phone read _New Message._ She wasn't surprised when she unlocked her phone and saw that the message was from Spencer.

_Emily, where are you?! I've been waiting at The Brew for half an hour now__! __W__e decided to meet up at eight, remember? - Spencer_

"Shit." Emily cursed out loud as she remembered her scheduled coffee hangout with her friend.

She immediately replied to her friend and shot up off of her bed. She quickly changed out of her pajamas and into blue skinny jeans and a purple V-neck.

Emily took one last look at herself in the mirror before rushing out of her room.

* * *

"You're really living up to the nickname of a sloth." Spencer scoffed at the brunette standing in front of her.

"I got distracted, okay? I'm sorry."

Emily let out a nervous chuckle as she pulled out the chair at the table to take a seat across from her friend, and put her coffee down.

"What's got you distracted from _me,_ Emily? Are you-" She paused. "cheating on me?" Spencer playfully said as she dropped her jaw in disgust, trying her best to irritate her friend.

Emily crossed her arms and clenched her jaw.

"I was distracted by my pen pal. Another letter came in today and I got caught up reading the letter. I totally forgot."

"Speaking of your pen pal, how is she?"

Spencer was always quick to ask Emily about her pen pal.

"I don't know, she's cool I guess." Emily lied.

Her pen pal was cooler than cool. Way cooler than cool. She shouldn't have lied to her best friend; she sank into the chair.

"Why don't I believe you?"

"I might have developed a small crush on her." Emily mumbled her words, hoping Spencer would misinterpret what she said.

"What did you say? I couldn't hear you"

"I kind of like her!" Emily basically screamed.

"You're kidding me, seriously?"

Everyone else in the café turned to look at Spencer's outburst. She had jumped out of her chair and practically screamed her reply.

"It just happened, okay? I can't help it."

Emily looked up at her friend, cowering in her seat.

"Would you sit down, Spence? People are looking."

She quietly sat back down, holding her stare with Emily.

"How did this happen?" Spencer calmly asked.

"I don't know, really. I'm just drawn to her. Every week I found myself anticipating her letters. Getting a new letter feels like the best thing that has happened all summer. She gets me you know? She's something special" Emily dreamily said.

Emily was staring into space, thinking about her pen pal.

"That doesn't really explain it. Emily, this person might not even be a girl, or they could be ugly."

Spencer regretted her words as soon as they came out of her mouth.

"That's not what I meant"

Emily furrowed her eyebrows at her friend.

"She told me she was a girl, and not to mention her writing and sincerity. I believe her. And I don't care if she's ugly. She'll be beautiful to me"

Spencer sat back in her chair, sighing loudly.

"You've got it bad don't you?"

"She left her phone number in the letter I got today. She thinks it would be more convenient if we could text instead of write letters."

Emily was hesitant to tell her friend this, but did anyways.

"You know what that means right? That means we can find out who this person is."

"And how do you suggest we do that, Spencer?"

"With the power of the internet obviously. I'm sure if you search up her phone number in an online phone book, you can find out who this person is." Spencer nodded her head, congratulating herself on her idea.

"Don't you think that's a bit weird? And I think international numbers might be different."

Spencer shook her head.

"How can it be? Don't you want to know who you're talking to?"

"Of course I do, but that would be like invading her privacy." Emily articulated, considering Spencer's suggestion.

"Alright, but don't blame me when you realize your pen pal is some weirdo."

Emily remained astonished at how unbelievable her friend could be sometimes.

"So, are you gonna text the number?" Spencer inquired.

"I want to, but I'm nervous."

Emily became fidgety, playing with the lid on her coffee.

"Why?"

"I don't know, it's not like I've never talked to her before. It'll just be weird to be able to contact her at any time."

"I'm sure it'll be okay. If you're lucky you might eventually talk to her on the phone. I'm sorry about all my negatively earlier. I want you to be happy, and she seems to make you happy."

Spencer tried to apologize, and assure her of her support.

"You should try to look at the bright side of this."

"I guess so."

Emily sighed and paused for a moment before getting up from her seat.

"Thanks for talking to me, Spence, despite all of your weird quirks, you're a really great friend, I couldn't imagine someone better."

Spencer just gave a sly grin, shrugged her shoulders and pulled in her friend for a long embrace.

"You too, Em." Spencer mumbled into Emily's shoulder.

They finally parted ways, smirks across both of their faces.

* * *

Emily laid on her bed. Her head was hanging off one side and her feet off the other. She had the letter from her pen pal in one hand and her phone in the other.

She wanted so badly to gather the courage and just send a text to her, but she couldn't bring herself to do it.

She finally decided that if she didn't do it, she'd regret it so she rolled onto her stomach and laid out the letter in front of her. After unlocking her phone and going to her messages, she typed in the number and then a short message.

_Hey there, A, it's your pen pal, otherwise known as E._

Now all she had to do was press send and then the madness would be over. She wouldn't have to worry about sending that first message any more.

As soon as her thumb hit the send button, she was panicking; she forgot to check for spelling mistakes. What is she said something wrong? Maybe she didn't say enough. If she messed up then, this whole first impression would be terrible.

Then she heard her phone beep, indicating that she had received a message. She tapped at the screen a few times and was met with great relief.

_Hey! I was wondering when you would get the letter, and call me Ali. My name is Alison, but I think Ali is better._

Emily laughed out loud at how nervous she had been, now she was incredibly grateful to be so close to her pen pal.

* * *

**A/N: Sorry about the length of this chapter, it's not as long as the others. Hope you enjoyed it (:**


End file.
